Fake Fan Fiction ❯ All's Fair In War and Love ❯ Chapter 2-B ( Chapter 5 )

Title: All's Fair In War and Love 2-B

Rating: NC-17

Fandom: FAKE
Pairings: Dee/Ryo, Ryo/Dee

Characters: Bikky, Carol and OCs
Warnings: Adult situations, foul mouths, two men in a loving relationship.
Spoilers: All 7 volumes
Summary: Finding himself once again alone at the supermarket check out, Dee finally confronts Ryo on something that has been bothering him since he first got together with Ryo.

Disclaimer: I don't own FAKE. Dee, Ryo and the other FAKE characters are the genius of Sanami Matoh.

 

 

This fic started as an idea being bounced back and forth between myself and DeeRyoFan on IM. Most of Ryo's parts in this fic is because of her. Thanks to her for helping me write this fic.

 

 

 

Ryo ran down the hallway from the front door into the corridor to the elevator. He hit the button and waited only a few moments before he started to get frustrated because the elevator doors did not open yet. Deciding he could not wait any longer, he turned toward the stairs and ran down all seven flights. He did not pause in his speed as he hit the lobby and raced out of the building, heading down the street. People who were strolling along the mostly residential street jumped quickly to get out of the way of what they believed was a madman. Some paused to look behind him, wondering if he would be followed by a cop or someone. Ryo did not notice anyone except to barely avoid running into someone.

 

Ryo was panting as he came to an abrupt halt in front of the store.

 

Staring at the door, he took a deep breath and entered the store, making the little bells over the door ring. Without looking around, he determinedly strode from the door across the store's interior to the aisle with the sanitary and family planning products, unaware of the looks he got from the young woman standing behind the checkout counter.

 

He came to a stop in front of the shelves displaying a selection of condoms and lubricants. His eyes quickly scanned the products before he reached out for a bottle that he was familiar with.

 

He paused, then pulled his hand away, dropping it at his side. Carefully he peered around, noticing the checkout girl watching him in interest. He felt himself blushing to the roots of his hair.

 

The woman smirked and turned away, shaking her head in amusement.

 

Ryo was caught between cursing himself out for blushing so badly and wanting to just walk out of the aisle and leave the store. He started to turn when he had a vision of Dee, aroused, flushed and half naked, sprawled out before him. He gulped, feeling himself heat up with a different type of flush. In his mind, he heard Dee say, “I want you to fuck me stupid.”

 

He turned back to scan the products again, still too afraid to pick anything up, but caught up in knowing he wanted to give Dee exactly the same thing his lover was asking for.

 

“Can I help you, sir?” he heard coming suddenly from behind him.

 

Ryo jumped at the voice. “What?” he asked, stunned. “I… No. I was…” He shook his head. “No.” He cursed himself again, knowing he most likely was a very interesting crimson color. He could not stop himself from feeling like he was dying from slow embarrassment right before the amused eyes of the young stock boy who now stood before him.

 

“You just looked a little uncertain. If you have any questions, I'll be glad to answer them,” the young man talked on, appearing to be unflustered about having to explain various types of lubricants.

 

The sad part, Ryo reflected, was there were no questions he would have about any of the products before him. Most of them he was familiar with, some more than others. He did not need any help in selection as he was quite educated in that area. It was just buying the damn stuff in person that he had problems with.

 

He'd be damned if he was going to make his selection with the stock boy staring at him in amusement. “Uh, no thanks,” he managed to reply without stammering too bad. “I mean, I'm good. I… I mean, uh… ehm…” Okay, he corrected himself in his mind, at least he wasn't stuttering.

 

Out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed the woman at the counter cover her mouth to keep from laughing aloud.

 

“Where do you have toothpaste?” he asked, sighing mentally.

 

The young man before him smiled politely. “Where you always get it, Mr. MacLean.”

 

`Oh shit…' Ryo thought, feeling himself dying inside again. “Oh… oh, of c-course….” He started to turn away to leave the aisle. “Ex…” he gulped involuntarily, “…cuse me.”

 

The young man reached out and picked up a box. He handed it to Ryo. “Mr. Laytner usually gets this brand,” he stated.

 

Ryo's eyes went wide, staring down at the box held out for him to take, feeling his jaw drop.

 

“He doesn't buy it often,” the man said. “But….” He suddenly stopped himself, staring at Ryo. He shook his head.

 

“B-but?” Ryo inquired, before swallowing thickly.

 

The young man studied Ryo with intense brown eyes. “Never mind. You really don't want to know my fantasies about Mr. Laytner.”

 

Ryo's eyebrow shot up at that, suddenly his dilemma forgotten. “Oh?” he asked carefully.

 

Lifting the box he still held in his hand, the man asked, “So is this what you came here for?”

 

Ryo barely managed to not cross his arms over his chest and tap his foot. Dark eyes shifted to study the young man before him.

 

The other man seemed to squirm a little under the look. “I'm sorry. I shouldn't be saying stuff like that to you. I can't keep my big mouth shut.”

 

“And why is that?” Ryo demanded.

 

“Well, aren't you his… partner?”

 

Ryo's eyebrow went up again. “What makes you think that?” he asked. In his mind, he added, “Not that it's untrue.” He was curious on what would make the other man think that. He could not recall ever coming into this store, giving away that him and Dee were more than just best friends.

 

Soft brown eyes gazed up at him hopefully. “You're not?”

 

“You mean his partner at work?” Ryo asked. “I am.”

 

“Oh. Work partners,” the man repeated in relief. “Wow. Then maybe one day I'll give him a tube for free… you know, then maybe….” Eyes shifted back to Ryo again. “You think he'd be interested in me?”

 

Ryo ground his teeth in irritation. “I think not,” he remarked through clenched teeth.

 

“Oh? Why? Am I too young?” the other man asked. “I'm 22.”

 

Without putting thought into the action, Ryo snatched the box from the boy. “Because he's very much spoken for,” he snapped out, gripping the box in his hand.

 

“So you and him are… together?”

 

Ryo glared at the stock boy, then turned to grab a bottle of the most expensive lube on the shelves. He thought for a moment and decided to grab a second one, his eyes on the stock boy.

 

“Damn,” the other man muttered under his breath, looking forlorn.

 

“Yes, we're together. And this,” Ryo replied, holding up the bottle, “will not last the weekend if I have anything to say about it.”

 

The other's mouth dropped open. He looked at the two bottles and the box with the large size tube of lubrication and walked away dejected. “Have fun with that hot stud,” he muttered as he left.

 

“Thank you for your assistance,” Ryo called out.

 

He turned and strode up to the checkout counter. He waited patiently while the customers in front of him paid for their purchases. When he got up to the counter, he placed the three tubes of lube on the counter. He avoided eye contact with anyone around him, hoping the man in front of him, currently paying for his cold medicine would not look down at what was on the counter before Ryo.

 

Thankfully no one was behind him, and he mentally willed the man to finally be done and leave, along with no one else to get on the line behind him.

 

His luck was short lived as the man waited for his items to be bagged. A young mother with three children between the ages of 6 and 13 got on the line behind Ryo.

 

The guy in front of Ryo left the counter and the woman at the register looked over to him. “Next,” she greeted with a smile.

 

“Good evening, ma'am,” Ryo greeted meekly, inwardly cursing himself. He was hoping for simple politeness.

 

“Good evening, Mr. MacLean,” she greeted. “How are you doing this fine evening?”

 

A storm of blistering curses aimed at himself swept through Ryo's mind as he felt himself blush deep red again. `This has got to stop!' he thought, knowing he only gave himself away more with the obvious telling signs.

 

“Um, fine, thank you,” he forced himself to reply in an almost close to normal conversation tone. “And how are you doing?”

 

The woman batted her eyelashes, looking up at Ryo. “Do you think I'm that pretty?” she asked.

 

“Uh… I….” he started to stammer again, wondering what brought that on.

 

“I was hoping that blush meant I had an effect on you. Oh well.” She glanced up at him with a knowing look and winked. “I'm doing just fine tonight. Considering I have to work.”

 

Ryo smiled back as politely as he could, willing her to hurry up. `Just check out the damn things and put them in a bag, so I can get the hell outta here….' His mind flashed back to Dee under him, flushed and writhing, wanting Ryo to take him. `….And back to Dee.' He felt his face darken again, but not the usual blush. He knew he had to get out of there and back to Dee, lubrication in his possession.

 

He turned to watch the children behind him as they played, Ryo smiled in amusement. One of the girls was fighting with her sister and pushed her accidentally into Ryo.

 

“Careful there, little one,” he said gently. He hoped the kids would not get too close to the counter to see what he was buying.

 

The one that Ryo held out a hand to steady looked up at him. “Sorry, Mister,” the little girl apologized.

 

“That's okay,” he assured her, scooting her back gently away from him toward the woman who appeared to be not that much older than him.

 

The mother's eyes went between her children and Ryo, then past Ryo, onto the counter.

 

Ryo forced himself to smile sweetly at her. Behind him he finally heard the sound of the first item being scanned.

 

The woman at the counter placed the box with the cheaper lube to the side and picked up one of the bottles. She went to scan it, only for it not to take. She frowned and tried again. When the price still did not go through, she put the bottle down and picked up the one, which was exactly the same product. She tried to scan that one several times, even wiping off the barcode.

 

“That's odd,” she mused.

 

Ryo heard her and her attempts to scan the other items. He continued to watch the kids in their roughhousing. He heard her fiddle with the scanner several more times.

 

Deciding he should have been long gone from the store by now and halfway back to Dee, instead of being among all these people probably thinking him a pervert, he turned his head to see what was taking so long with what should be a simple process. He noticed her trying to type the numbers from the barcode into the computer. The computer made a sound that sounded pretty rude to Ryo and he knew it was not good at all.

 

“What's wrong?” he forced himself to ask the woman who was holding the bottle of expensive lube.

 

“Looks like they didn't enter this item into our system yet,” she replied.

 

“Oh,” was all Ryo found he was able to say.

 

She lifted the bottle with the casualness as if it was mere cooking oil and waved it before Ryo. “New stock. We just got it in this morning.”

 

“Uh, no problem,” Ryo remarked, wishing she would put the damn bottle down, aware that everyone in the area probably knew what he was attempting to purchase by now. “I'll just bring it back and take only this one.” He pointed to the box with the tube of the cheaper brand that Dee usually picked up whenever he bought it in that particular store.

 

“Hang on one moment and we'll get a price for you,” she said with a smile.

 

“No, it's okay. I….”

 

“It's no problem, Mr. MacLean.”

 

Ryo felt himself dying again, wanting to grab the damn bottle from her hand and tossing it and its twin to the side. At least the other brand was already scanned. All she needed to do was total it, he would pay and get the hell out of there.

 

“Henry,” the woman yelled out as loud as she could. “I need a price check on lube!”

 

Ryo's jaw drop in sheer mortification. He was frozen, unable to react further, wishing he could make himself move and run out of the store. He ducked his head, groaning low.

 

To his further horror, the woman lifted the offending bottle and waved it high in the air. “That new stuff. The super silky heat stuff.”

 

Hugging himself with one arm, Ryo buried his face in his free hand. He swore every eye in the small convenience store was on him, people whispering and he did not want to think of what went through their minds.

 

Why couldn't things like this happen to Dee? he wondered. Everything came easy to Dee. His partner can talk all he wanted about being a street rat who had to fight and crawl his way to make a good life for himself, but Ryo knew the real truth about Dee. Everything came easy for Dee. The woman who ran the orphanage he was raised in practically adopted Dee for herself, bestowing enough attention on young Dee that he admitted he grew up knowing what a mother's love was. She happened to have been from a well off family, who put money aside to assure Dee went to a better school during his grade school years and to help cover what Dee could not while he was in college. Ryo knew Dee had a few first time stories about his own experiences in life and sexuality, but nothing seemed as traumatic to Ryo. They only gave Dee more strength and confidence, learning from his mistakes.

 

And most importantly to Ryo at that moment, never once… not once that Ryo could recall, did Dee ever step up to a counter with lube and need a price check. Perhaps if Dee had ever found himself in a similar humiliating situation in his early years, he might have better understanding and actually be sympathetic toward Ryo. He might not have put his foot down and set the terms that he had, putting Ryo in present situation that the thought following in Ryo's mind was simply, `Kill me now'.

 

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the mother who waited on line behind him and started to unreasonably pray that she was deaf and blind. He did not realize his hand slipped and he was paying more attention to her until, to his further horror, she smirked knowingly at Ryo and winked.

 

`I want to die right now, please….'

 

She smiled indulgently at Ryo. “Don't worry. My husband and I are open about this type of stuff with our family,” she said, indicating the children.

 

“Uhm, err… thanks, I guess,” he croaked low to the woman behind him. His eyes went back to the woman, still holding the damnable bottle high. He removed his hand from his face, but blushed even deeper, when she smiled sweetly at him and winked.

 

Henry appeared at the end of the aisle where Ryo had his encounter with the young man. “$17.25,” he called out.

 

“Thanks!” the girl replied, waving the bottle up in the air again.

 

Ryo groaned.

 

“Okay. We're all set here. Now let me remember how to input a manual price and you can be on your way, Mr. MacLean.”

 

“Thank you,” Ryo remarked, feeling a little relief at seeing an end to the ordeal.

 

He reached into the back pocket of his jeans to take out his wallet. Frowning, he removed his hand from the pocket and with his other arm, reached into the other back pocket. His frown got deeper as that hand came up empty too. He placed both hands into the pockets of his jacket, sighing when he encountered more empty pockets. His hands went under his jacket to check the breast pockets on the shirt he wore.

 

He closed his eyes and groaned. `Could it get any worse now?' he thought, fighting to keep himself from slipping over the edge into hysteria.

 

“That will be $44.45, Mr. MacLean,” the counter woman's voice cut through his fog.

 

`Just for freakin' once if stuff like this happened to Dee…. Why me?' He took a deep breath and gathered what little wits he had left. “Ma'am,” he started politely, willing his voice to be even, ignoring the little quiver to it, “I seem to have left my wallet at home. Umm….” He squeezed his eyes shut. `Definitely I could die right here and not mind… Really….' He opened his eyes and hastily started to reach for the items sitting on the counter. “I'll just bring these back to the shelf. I'm sorry for all the trouble,” he rushed saying.

 

The woman shoved his hands away. “If you like, I can put it aside and you can come back with your wallet.”

 

“Uh…”

 

“If not, we can put it away and I can just void the transaction.”

 

Ryo went to open his mouth to say void it when he suddenly had a vision of Dee killing him - death by hitting him with his wallet. “I uh….” he started, then muttered under his breath, “God, he's gonna kill me….”

 

“Excuse me, Mr. MacLean?”

 

He quickly glanced back to notice the line had grown, people craning their necks to see what was taking so long to move the line along.

 

“Is there a problem here?” a new voice asked, adding to Ryo's further humiliation. He did not need anymore people at this point.

 

“No, I.. uh… sorry, umm…” he stammered, at a loss for words.

 

The new voice belonged to the store manager who had come over upon seeing the growing line. He glanced down at the items still on the counter. “Stocking up, I see. Good stuff, too,” he remarked approvingly.

 

“Uh, yes…” was all Ryo found he could get out of his mouth.

 

“Mr. MacLean left his wallet at home and just realized it,” the woman at the register explained. “I was asking if he wants to put it aside for him to come back or not.”

 

Ryo took a deep breath, forcing himself to not start screaming like a madman, slip to the floor and crawl out or simply start crying. “I'm sorry,” he said, proud of himself this time that his voice came out a little stronger. `It really can't get worse, can it?' he told himself. `You've hit the bottom, MacLean. Time to get back on your feet again.' To the manager, he explained, “I'll just take these back and get out of your way. It's no problem, really. I mean, after all the trouble I've caused, the least I can do is put it away if I can't pay for it.” Babbling now, but he decided he would take that over silent mortification. “I… oh damn!” he blurted out. “This is so embarrassing. I'm sorry.” He buried his face in his hand again for a moment before staring at the manager.

 

The woman behind him, leaned over, patting his shoulder. “Darling one, there's nothing embarrassing about helping nature a little along its course.”

 

“Oh my….” Ryo gasped upon hearing her.

 

“Bag it up, Lacey,” the manager instructed. He smiled at Ryo. “Mr. MacLean, we'll put these on Dee's credit.”

 

“Uh… well. Okay.” Ryo took another deep breath and smiled sheepishly, shaking his head. “Oh my,” he said, laughing at himself a little. “I guess I just made a complete fool outta myself, huh?”

 

The woman before him placed the items in a plastic shopping bag and handed it to Ryo, smiling sweetly. “Here you go, sweetie.” She grinned at him. “First time?”

 

Ryo accepted the bag and chuckled. “Yes. I'm sorry.”

 

“Don't be,” the manager said. “We've all been there at one time.” He laughed.

 

Ryo prepared to leave, but turned to the woman behind him. “Sorry, ma'am for making you wait.”

 

“That's okay. Enjoy.” She winked at him.

 

As Ryo started to walk away from the counter, the manager stated, “I used to work in a drugstore uptown when I was younger. Near where your partner grew up.” He winked at Ryo, his eyes twinkling with mischief. “Dee's first time… well, he was so nervous, he almost stole it.”

 

Ryo paused in his steps to clear the checkout lane, looking over to the manager. “You knew Dee back then?” he asked, amazed.

 

The manager laughed, nodding his head. “Sure did.”

 

“He what?” Ryo asked, stunned, then chuckled. Maybe things like this did happen to Dee sometimes after all, he wondered.

 

The manager moved Ryo to the side, away from the checkout lane so Lacey could start taking care of the other customers, getting them moving and along their way. Intrigued, Ryo followed, maneuvering about the kids.

 

“He was about 17 or 18 at the time,” the manager explained. Used to come in all the time for his toiletries. That's how I got to know him. Then one day he comes in looking a bit nervous.”

 

“My Dee? Nervous?” Ryo let out a chuckle. Somehow when the manager intervened it had started to get a little livable for Ryo. Now suddenly relief was overshadowed by amazement that he might not have been the only one having trouble at first buying lubrication. He also caught himself, realizing he had referred to his partner as `his Dee'. He could not stop the slight blush, knowing exactly how it sounded to this very nice man talking to him.

 

“Yup. Dee nervous. Very. Because he was acting weird and his earlier reputation preceded him, I felt I had to watch him. Discreetly from a distance, of course. Granted, I heard that he had stopped stealing a couple of years before and wanted to be a cop, but when someone with his reputation comes into a store that he used to hit up, you are obliged to watch carefully. Well, anyway, he picked up a few other items, his usual, then suddenly he shot right through the aisle with where we kept the lubrication and grabbed the first thing that came into his hand. Without stopping, I should add. Just zoomed right through, not bothering to check what he was grabbing.” The manager laughed. “I knew right then what was going on. And I just had to continue watching to see how he acted at the counter. Just for shits and giggles, mind you. He was halfway from the aisle to the nearest check out counter when some girls he knew noticed him and started to approach him to say hello.” The manager laughed harder. “Poor thing went into blind panic at that point, and shoved the box under his sweatshirt.”

 

Ryo raised in eyebrow. “What?” he asked amazed and started to laugh. “Oh my….”

 

“”He ended up talking with the girls, who got on the line with him,” the manager stated. “The girls were too busy flirting with him and giggling to notice he was looking a little pale once he realized they got on line with him. He put his other items down and forgot about the bottle of lubrication under his sweatshirt.”

 

Ryo bit his lower lip, trying not to laugh too hard at the image in his head as the manager talked on. It was too good for Ryo.

 

“I knew he wasn't trying to steal it, but had he walked out of the store with it still under his shirt, it would have been considered that, no matter what his intentions were. I mean, he was playing it off cool with the girls, but if you watched him really close, he was barely passing himself off. You could see he just wanted to bolt. So I started to approach him as he began to leave the counter, just to remind him of what was under his shirt, when it slipped out from under his shirt on its own.” The manager's eyes twinkled. “Not only were the girls watching this happen, but the bottle dropped right onto the feet of that nice nun who raised him.” He let out a laugh. “She had entered the store and upon noticing Dee, she was walking up to him. Only Dee did not see her.” He burst out in laughter.

 

Ryo slapped his hand on his forehead. “No!” he remarked, sounding partially scandalized. He started to laugh. “What did pengu… uh, I mean, Mother say?”

 

“She picked up the bottle, placed it on the counter, and pulled him out of the store, by his ear, yelling at him about how he had supposedly stopped stealing.”

 

Ryo laughed out loud.

 

“I heard the girls who were behind him teased Dee for months after. Some of them spread the tale to their other friends.”

 

Ryo laughed even harder.

 

“Rumor has it they stopped laughing when they found out it wasn't for any of them, or of the female variety. That was something they were not expecting of Dee. He was quite the ladies man, and no one foresaw that he would expand his tastes to other than just women.”

 

Ryo's laughter died down to amused chuckles. He shook his head. “Oh shit…”

 

The manager winked knowingly at Ryo. “But that reason he attempted to buy it that day is your gain today, isn't it?”

 

Ryo was shaking his head, wiping at his eyes from laughing so much. He let out a small chuckle. “I guess.” He took a deep breath. Looking at the manager, he said, “I mean, I'm sorry, sir, that you had to witness us both making complete fools of ourselves.”

 

“Not a problem,” the manager replied. “Oh, and tell Astro Boy, I said hello.”

 

“W-what?” Ryo felt another wave of laughter bubble up. “Please don't tell me…?” His eyes looked at the manager in question.

 

“Yup. What Dee had grabbed was a bottle of Astroglide.”

 

Ryo felt into laughter again. “Oh I will!” he choked out, trying to stop his laughter. “Thank you, sir.”

 

“Have a good evening, Mr. MacLean.”

 

“Please, it's Randy.”

 

The manager held out his hand. “Johnny.”

 

“Thank you again, Johnny. And you have a good evening too.”

 

Smiling, Johnny went back to work.

 

With a newfound confidence, Ryo turned to Lacey. “You have a wonderful evening, ma'am.” He winked playfully at her.

 

She giggled, then replied, “You too. And enjoy.”

 

“Oh, I intend to now,” Ryo remarked with a laugh.

 

He left the store. Outside, he paused to take a deep breath. He shook his head, remembering everything that went wrong in the store. All that happened and he did not faint, cry or run like the devil to get away. He was pretty damn proud of himself. Then his thoughts went to Johnny's story of Dee, and he started to chuckle to himself.

 

It did get better.

 

He strode down the street toward their building, a bounce in his step, grinning like a maniac.

 

He entered the building, going to the elevator. Inside, as he pressed the button for his floor, he muttered, “This stupid thing better not get stuck now.”

 

As the elevator doors opened on the top floor, Ryo let out a breath he had not known he had been holding. Quickly he left the elevator and went down the hallway to their front door.

 

By the time he put his hand on the doorknob, realizing the door was still unlocked, he had a huge shit-eating grin on his face that he knew he could not get rid of - even if he wanted to.

 

He entered the apartment, looking around for his Astro Boy.

 

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